


safely powerless

by Anonymous



Category: Glowfic and Related Works, Silmaril (Glowfic)
Genre: Gen, the peal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 15:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14192496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Almost certainly not how Vance and Aldith meeting the Peal would really go.





	safely powerless

**Author's Note:**

> I had this bad idea and now you get to suffer through reading it if you want to.

The tall stranger appears so close to Vance that Vance runs into her before he notices her. He grabs her face and claims her for his own. He makes her protect him, protect Aldith.

And then they are somewhere else, all three of them, Vance and Aldith and the appearing stranger. They’re on the outskirts of an excruciatingly beautiful city that fades elegantly into a managed and very hospitable forest. Vance gets to his feet and looks around wildly. Aldith’s alive, the stranger is very pretty, possible hiding places are the forest and behind that arch over there. They’re not trapped, but they don’t know the land or how they got here.

“Okay, tell me what we’re saving you from,” says the stranger. “We have resources you don’t and you’ll be better off explaining the problem than trying to tell us what to do. You know I’m saying that because it’s true, not because it’s likely to get you to let me go. I’ve already let people know about your power because I want them to prevent you from mind-controlling other people so that they feel confident that you’re not too dangerous to live with. What would getting out of this okay look like for you?”

“Alive. Aldith alive. Not imprisoned. Not needing to control people to keep them from killing us.”

“We can do that. I’m coordinating a test of your abilities right now because we have at least one option for a society to put you in but we might have more. Okay, my people have everything in position for a test. Do you mind if I take you and Aldith to another place for a moment? It won’t be a dangerous place.”

He glances at Aldith to see that she seems okay with this. She seems relieved. “…Fine.”

They appear somewhere else. His control snaps.

“I swear I’m not under her mind-control anymore as far as I can tell and have reason to expect I would know if I were. I swear all she wanted from me was her safety.”

Vance opens his mouth to say he’s not a she but then thinks better of it. He shares a look with Aldith.

Another tall beautiful stranger appears. There’s a strange buzzing sound around him. “Can we question you under lie detection about your power?”

“Why? You broke it. It’s gone.”

“It’s not broken. It’s adjacency-limited.” And he explains adjacency.

Vance sits down on the ground and hugs himself and isn’t much good for talking to for a while.

-

They get Allspeak, study a lot to overcome the culture shock, and move to Tumunzahar where no one has any reason to be afraid of them.


End file.
